Comments on: Be careful drawing conclusions from this data

Be careful drawing conclusions from this data

sambosambo — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 04:50:39 -0800

StateStats: Explore the popularity of search queries in U.S. states

StateStats shows you how popular a particular Google search is in each state. It also shows correlation with other state rankings such as obesity, income, or unemployment. Here are some examples to get you started, and remember that correlation does not imply causation and all that. MetaFilter/Bacon Porn/Church Christmas/Hanukkah Tequila/Vodka/Rum/Whiskey/Wine Ghosts/UFOs/Bigfoot/Elvis

By: DU

DU — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 05:13:39 -0800

Wow, the correlation of "church" and obesity is about the highest I've ever seen. 0.76. But beyond the causation problem, there seems to be another issue here. Who exactly uses the internet¹ to search for "church"? Would a regular churchgoer actually google "church"? I mean, the map does seem to correlate with my data-free prejudice of the Jesusland States, but I don't get why they are searching for "church". I suppose it must all come from searches like "church music" or "what's a good dish for a church potluck"? ¹Which is another problem. Internet searchers are a non-random selection of the populace.

By: Space Coyote

Space Coyote — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 05:19:31 -0800

DU: A search for 'obama muslim' is pretty telling if you are wondering what the Jesusland folk are looking for online.

By: EnormousTalkingOnion

EnormousTalkingOnion — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 05:20:17 -0800

Pornography Polygamy Shotgun Hurricane Crunk Jewish Hunting Fishing Football Pilates Breakdancing Fried Work Welfare Unemployed Corn Coal Murder Suicide Larry The Cable Guy Jeremiah Wright NRA Carbon Footprint

By: Aversion Therapy

Aversion Therapy — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 05:26:36 -0800

Apparently fisting is fairly evenly distributed nation-wide. Who knew.

By: sambosambo

sambosambo — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 05:36:04 -0800

I started playing a little game trying to see which searches light up only one state. I'd probably get more if I wasn't at work, but so far: Massachusetts - Sandwich Utah - Seagull W. Virginia - Coal Nevada - Poker A harder game might be to see which searches light up all but one.

By: smackfu

smackfu — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 05:49:51 -0800

Hawaii - Surf. Hipster is also good for just New York and Minnesota.

By: bjrn

bjrn — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 06:02:51 -0800

> I started playing a little game trying to see which searches light up only one state. The state name seems to work for most (I haven't checked all). There are some exceptions, like Arizona for which there are no results.

By: The Whelk

The Whelk — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 06:08:43 -0800

Abstinence Kinda neat, but it flat out rejects certain words: God, Sex, Death, Faith. Are the results too large or just nonexistent? Also, it reminds me of the delightful Missed Connections map.

By: philfromhavelock

philfromhavelock — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 06:09:37 -0800

> I started playing a little game trying to see which searches light up only one state. Joe Sakic for Colorado.

By: DU

DU — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 06:15:39 -0800

I started playing a little game trying to see which searches light up only one state. New Hampshire

By: DU

DU — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 06:21:15 -0800

Polygamy vs Polyamory

By: DU

DU — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 06:21:48 -0800

The states of denial

By: govtdrone

govtdrone — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 06:26:39 -0800

I thought gumbo was universal. Dang!

By: ShameSpiral

ShameSpiral — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 06:53:00 -0800

Sex.

By: The Whelk

The Whelk — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 07:34:21 -0800

Sex So are the bluish states low because they aren't interested in sex or because they have so , so much of it? Oh Vermont, you little minx.

By: fings

fings — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 07:57:31 -0800

"god" as a search term worked for me; it gives a 0.84 correlation with obesity, even better than "church". "atheist" has a 0.72, "christ" 0.71, "christian" 0.77. Searches for "buddhist", on the other hand, is on the other side of the spectrum. It has a -0.71 correlation with obesity.

By: speedo

speedo — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 08:13:56 -0800

We're completely surrounded!

By: DU

DU — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 08:19:02 -0800

RLOVEUTION!

By: the littlest brussels sprout

the littlest brussels sprout — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 08:20:52 -0800

I love you, Pennsylvania.

By: ShameSpiral

ShameSpiral — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 08:22:17 -0800

Michigan is currently no. 1 for these searches: bondage, slave, freak. *books flight for Lansing*

By: Thorzdad

Thorzdad — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 08:24:12 -0800

Oh, Indiana...

By: smackfu

smackfu — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 08:24:50 -0800

I started playing a little game trying to see which searches light up only one state. It's pretty easy to cheat by using city names. There are some exceptions, like Arizona for which there are no results. I think they are queuing up new search terms, and then running them in the background, so the results eventually show up. Like Arizona works now.

By: tybeet

tybeet — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 09:01:43 -0800

Be careful drawing conclusions from this data. Voodoo Top 2 states: Louisiana 100.0 Mississippi 29.0 Linux Correlation with Percent Elderly: -0.45 Seems pretty reliable to me.

By: the littlest brussels sprout

the littlest brussels sprout — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 09:44:49 -0800

Also.

By: The Whelk

The Whelk — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 09:55:33 -0800

I think we broke it.

By: norabarnacl3

norabarnacl3 — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 10:03:35 -0800

"Sorry, the load on this app is too high right now to process new queries. Try again tomorrow." Damn. Very cool though.

By: DU

DU — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 10:43:01 -0800

It still works intermittently.

By: The Whelk

The Whelk — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 11:15:28 -0800

Beer Wine Coffee Tea Urban Rural

By: smackfu

smackfu — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 11:41:16 -0800

I love that beer is correlated to latitude, since that was always historically true.

By: vbfg

vbfg — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 12:17:40 -0800

I notice cock is least popular in Utah.

By: plastic_animals

plastic_animals — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 12:23:19 -0800

arugula vs. lettuce

By: flod logic

flod logic — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 12:51:12 -0800

Should I be surprised that myspace correlates most strongly with illiteracy...?

By: Rashomon

Rashomon — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 13:08:45 -0800

Cake vs Pie For cake 9 of the ten top states are in the South. For pie 9 of the ten top states are in the North.

By: plastic_animals

plastic_animals — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 13:16:07 -0800

teh internets nucular

By: desjardins

desjardins — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 14:11:35 -0800

Wyoming is 1st and 2nd highest for bdsm and bondage, respectively, yet near the bottom for femdom and fetish. Hmm. Eeeenteresting.

By: lunit

lunit — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 14:26:13 -0800

This is my new favorite toy. Thanks!

By: dhartung

dhartung — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 16:21:18 -0800

We're completely surrounded! Ahem.

By: ageispolis

ageispolis — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 16:44:09 -0800

God. obesity, infant mortality, energy consumption, pro-bush Jesus. tennessee wins Muhammad. idaho loses, and kentucky wins? Mormon. utah 100.0, new york 3.0 Jew. utah 35.0, new york 100.0 Poop. latitude? Bestiality. alaska, pro-bush, suicide Philosophy. probama, pop. density, nevada-loses John McCain. obesity, illiteracy Antarctica. alaska takes the frozen cake, frost correlation. Anal. california, the unemployed Peace. probama, antibush Depression. +latitude McDonalds. +obesity Poetry. vermont wins, hawaii loses Shakespeare. idaho wins, arizona loses

By: lekvar

lekvar — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 17:05:46 -0800

Aversion Therapy, I noticed that the relative rate of search queries for "fisting" by users in Wyoming is 100%. Lies, damned lies, statistics and all that, but it still draws a delightful picture of Wyoming's populace.

By: houshuang

houshuang — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 00:11:51 -0800

I'd love to have this either bigger - for the world - or smaller - by county... But I guess we don't have the data yet.